Thursday, December 29, 2011

A family that shaves together, stays together

We had such a great visit with Sam's sister's family; boat ride, pool session, dinner and our niece even had her first manatee sighting, we miss them already.

Unfortunately, yesterday Brandon discovered that his hair has begun to fall out. Surprisingly, Brandon is pretty okay with the idea, Sam shed a few tears but we decided to make light of the situation. So today was the day, OFF WITH HIS HAIR! Brandon's brother in law, Alistair, decided he would join Brandon's journey in hair loss and shave his head as well. (A majority of Brandon's other brothers in law have been honoring Brandon with shaved heads or balding, whatever you want to call it, years before his diagnosis ;) Our 11 year old niece even told her mom she wanted to shave her head for Uncle Brandon, although that is extremely sweet of her, we talked her out of it.

Set up outside Brandon's grandparents condo right on the inter coastal, Alistair went to work. Brandon's hair was shaved off into the ocean, let's just say he is as handsome as ever. Nephew Brener was next, mohawk to be like his Uncle B and then Brandon shaved Alistair's head. Quoting Lindsay, "a family that shaves together, stays together." All 3 of our guys look great. Alistair and B took it to the next level & decided to shave each other's armpits, taking it a little too far?!? mmmmm... Maybe. Below are a few pictures, more to come.

Enjoy!
B&S
Brandon, Brener, Alistair
Little B's turn
Damage done
Really?
Alistair's turn
During
Before
Mohawk 

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Good Morning Florida

Oh happy days...

We are really looking forward to today & this coming weekend. It is all about family! We've been lucky to spend quality time everyday with PaPa, MaMa, Uncle Kevin, Becky, and cousin Cali. We spent yesterday with Brandon's Uncle Larry and David and Sam's sister's family is crossing the state to spend the day/night with the Ream's. Plus the Whitton's are crossing the pond and back to the good old USA AND Kels will be joining us soon. Uncle B sure has a soft spot for his nieces & nephews and I know seeing all these family members will put a smile on his face.

We had another appointment with Dr. Green yesterday, all Brandon's levels are back up & he is off his anti-infection medication. He is even riding a stationary bike every morning!

We hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season with their loved ones.

With Love,
B&S


Saturday, December 24, 2011

It's a Wonderful Life

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sorry about the delay in posts, too much fun in the sun.   To recap our first week in Palm Beach:  Saturday night was our arrival, our trip from PHL to PBI was pretty uneventful, we loaded up on hand sanitizer and braved the flight down here, Brandon did great!   The first few days on beautiful Singer Island were a little rough, Brandon was just not Brandon.  He felt a little off, still on crutches, and his body basically felt like he just went through round 1 of chemotherapy.  Brandon and Sam spent most of their time breaking in the Ream's new condo.  I spent a lot of time reading on the balcony and Brandon took a lot of naps.  Gary and Becky brought us dinner every night and plus the condo has everything we need; DVR, PS3 and an amazing view, so trust me being stuck inside wasn't too bad;)  The only bad part about those first 2 days was the inability to make him feel better.  SNAP! It is Wednesday, Brandon wakes up feeling a little more energized and even wants Jimmy Johns!  By Wednesday night he is talking more and acting more like himself, thank you God.  Thursday morning arrives and Brandon is back!!! POOL DAY!!! Yes!  We head over to Brandon's grandparents new condo and head up to their pool, Brandon walked 20 laps, his first steps in 4-1/2 weeks, I was so proud and most importantly he was feeling great.  Did I mention that Thursday night Brandon decided to toss his crutches over the balcony into the ocean?  Well, not literally but he no longer is using his crutches.

Friday morning we had an appointment with our oncologist  at the Palm Beach Cancer Center, Dr. Bobby Green.  Dr. Staddon at Penn is close friends with Dr. Green and had arranged that we could see him for follow up appointments while in Florida.   The facilities were great (even had valet parking, fancy) and we felt really welcomed by Dr. Green.  Brandon had blood work done and Dr. Green went over some precautionary steps for our weekend.  These couple days are Brandon's most susceptible days for infection.  Don't worry we are piling up on hand sanitizer and doing our best to steer the germs away.    We will meet with Dr. Green again on Tuesday morning for a follow up appointment which will then be Day 14 of this cycle.

That brings us to today, Christmas Eve (Christmas in the Tortorello household)  We woke up this morning and celebrated "Christmas" morning with Sam's family via skype.  All 5 of Sam's siblings plus their spouses plus our 7 nieces/nephews gathered at Sam's parents house because Santa Claus came!  We were on skype for almost 3 hours watching gifts being opened.  Best part of being and aunt and uncle of 9 (soon to be 11) is their faces on days like this.  The kids would open a gift and then walk up the computer and show us what they got, it was like we were sitting right there.  It was a great day, we are now looking forward to Christmas day with the Ream's.

Just a quick note to say thank you again for all the phone calls, emails, text messages, facebook messages, tweets, cards, packages etc.  Brandon and I are extremely blessed to have such amazing friends and families.  We are in great hands and feel very loved.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I will sign off on a fun note, Brandon and Sam know 3 people who got engaged last night.  A big congrats to 2 of Sam's cousins and Brandon's best friend, Noah (and Abby)!  So many things to be happy about, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Brandon's first steps, laps in pool

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Wow

Bear with me the next couple of weeks I will be posting a lot of pictures...... This is a pic Brandon received today from one of his best friends, Tim Shaw. Tim plays for the Tennessee Titans #59, he not only tears it up on the field but is a great guy. Thanks Tim, this made Brandon's day.

Welcome to the Palm Beaches

Friday, December 16, 2011

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Bonjour ! (Sofitel is a French hotel)  50 degrees here in Philly on December 16th, I guess IT IS ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, who would have thought?  We truly have been blessed with this beautiful weather; Brandon, crutches, and snow would have made for an interesting week.

Enough weather talk, let's talk about Brandon.  I last left off with the Home care nurse hooking Brandon's port up to fluid.  The first night back to the hotel after treatment was somewhat iffy. His nausea got the best of him and caused loss of color and extreme fatigue, BUT he slept through the night, which was a huge positive.  He went through most of Thursday having good moments and bad moments, mostly good!  All in all we felt like yesterday was a better day than expected.  He has been eating saltines, bananas, oranges, applesauce, chicken noodle soup, Gatorade, ginger ale, etc., he does not always have an appetite but between Becky and I we are force feeding him.  The more energy the better!  Trust me his sarcasm has not changed one bit.  Pretty much  our day was spent mostly  resting and myself and Becky taking turns slipping out to do some shopping.  Last night we watched the semi finals of the NCAA women's volleyball championship, sad not to see PSU playing but we will be cheering on the ILLINI all the way.  GO BIG TEN!  Again, another decent nights sleep and enter Friday.

We had an appointment with our oncologist, Dr. Staddon, first thing this morning.  Which meant I needed to disconnect Brandon's port from his IV.  Maybe nursing school is my second calling?  (Brandon would beg to differ)  His favorite line this week, "Are you trying to kill me?"  Anyways, 8:45am at the doctor's office, we are starting to feel very welcome at Penn, as we now know the doorman,receptionist, nurses, etc all who are all invested in B's progress.  The doctor's appointment was a success, Dr. Staddon was very pleased with how things were going and gave us the okay to head down to Palm Beach for the holidays!   If you listen really closely, you can hear Brandon and I jumping for joy.  (Well maybe Brandon is not jumping but you get the idea)

Although we are very sad we will not be making the trip home to spend Christmas Eve with the Tortorello's, we are excited to get down to the sun and begin Brandon's recovery process.  We hope to rest, relax, work out and soak up the sun in Palm Beach and of course have a very Merry Christmas!

Next stop Singer Island, Florida.

With Love,
B&S

The REAL Pam Anderson

Brandon at XGames with Pam Anderson

Brandon in our suite with Homecare Nurse Pam

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Day 1 DONE

Greetings from Philadelphia.  I am sitting here writing this blog from our hotel suite (a big thanks to our parents for finding us a comfortable and spacious living area to recuperate) and Brandon is sound asleep.  I knew my husband was a strong, brave man but I can't tell you how proud I am of him, especially today.

We began our day at 8am, checking in at the oncology unit at Penn Medicine.  We met briefly with Dr. Staddon and off he took us to the infusion suites.  He introduced us to all the wonderful nurses we will be working with through this process and Brandon chose his infusion chair.  He chose a spot right in front of a big window overlooking Washington Square.  His area was fully equipped with tv/cable and 3 chairs right in front of him for Becky, Gary, and I, did I mention we had WiFi?  Within minutes we had 2 computers, 3 Ipads and 4 IPhones lining Brandon's side tables, we were ready! (once you go Mac you never go back)

Enter: Jillian, our nurse for the day.  We sure did luck out, Jill was young, energetic and most importantly informative.  She not only dished out medical advice but shared her own cancer story.  She too had osteosarcoma and went through the same process Brandon is experiencing now.  She was diagnosed at 15, went through chemo and had a knee replacement and partial femur replacement.  Dr. Staddon was her oncologist and Dr. Lackman performed her surgery.   She went back to playing volleyball, went to nursing school, and here she is back to Penn as a nurse in the oncology unit.  We really enjoyed speaking with her and hearing about her own experiences with this diagnosis.  She took great care of Brandon.  Other than our talks with Jill, frequent visits to the bathroom, a Jim's cheesesteak, skyping with the Tortorello's, we just basically read newspapers, magazines, emails and of course played Angry Birds.  But most importantly Brandon was upbeat and felt pretty well throughout this whole process.  After about 6 hours of being hooked up to the machine, Brandon had successfully completed his first day of chemotherapy.

Back at the hotel, Becky and Sam went and picked up some snack items, water and Gatorade.  Brandon has begun to feel slightly nauseous but a nap seemed to help.  Homecare came to our hotel and hooked Brandon up to some fluids which he will stay on for the next 48 hours.  We will then meet with Dr. Staddon for a follow up on Friday.

Until then..... all our love from Philly.

B&S

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Building "Team Ream"

Well, where to start? Most of you reading this have heard the minor details of how we got here but to throw it out there lets start from the beginning. Brandon being the competitive athlete I fell in love with, came home from his first flag football game of the season nice and sore. Basically, his leg hurt.  We just brushed it off as a pulled muscle/bruise etc..  The pain was not continual and wasn't truly evident until mid October.  After a couple weeks of a throbbing pain (only at night) in his left thigh, he made an appointment with a local orthopedic surgeon and family friend, Dr. Paul Suhey, (yes, for all you Bears fans, this is Matt Suhey's brother).  Dr. Suhey took x-rays, an MRI and referred us to Dr. Parrish, an orthopaedic oncologist in Lancaster, PA.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Brandon and I hit up the Hershey outlets and made our way to Dr. Parrish's office.  After spending two hours in the waiting room, Dr. Parrish dropped the bomb, "let's get you in to open biopsy surgery tomorrow."  Tomorrow? What is going on?

On November 23rd Dr. Parrish performed an open biopsy of Brandon's left femur at Lancaster General Hospital. The surgery was somewhat intrusive as it requires the surgeon to take an actual sampling of the bone marrow.  He told us he would need to send the biopsy slides to the Mayo Clinic's pathology lab for diagnosis and that this would take at least 10 days.  Brandon was also required to stay on crutches for at least the next month.  We returned home, enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner and spent Thanksgiving weekend the way one should...enjoying family, shopping, watching football with friends and eating leftovers.

We returned with our Mom and Dad to Dr. Parrish's office on December 6th and Dr. Parrish informed us that Brandon had chondroblastic osteosarcoma, a malignant bone tumor and that chemotherapy will be required.

Thankfully, Brandon's Dad had additional appointments lined up and we left Lancaster and drove directly to Baltimore for a second opinion from Kristy Weber, Chief of Orthopaedic Oncology at Johns Hopkins and then onto Philadelphia for a third opinion from Dr.Richard Lackman, Director of the Sarcoma Center of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania.

We immediately recognized that The University of Pennsylvania, "just felt right".  Dr. Lackman is widely recognized as one of the worldwide experts in osteosarcoma and has been performing surgeries to eliminate such tumors for 28 years.  He arranged for us to meet directly with Arthur "Chip" Staddon, Medical Director of the Joan Karnell Cancer Center and sarcoma expert.  The physicians were very familiar as their names repeatedly came up while we were seeking referrals.  In fact, they were the  physicians identified to treat a similar sarcoma that affected NY Giant and former Boston College Linebacker Mark Herzlich.  Additionally,  Brandon's Mom felt that the name Chip Staddon sounded particularly familiar and upon meeting him, she recognized him as the same person who owned a condo in Palm Beach above Brandon's Grandparents.  Mama and PopPop had a longstanding relationship with  Dr. Staddon's family and had looked over the family's condo through the years.   With the addition of Dr. Staddon's Nurse Practicioners Carla and Laetitia, we had officially found our treatment team and the key additions to "TEAM REAM".   Now, the next step - treatment.

We're happy to report that we will be starting therapy this week.  The treatment team, will insert a chemotherapy port on Tuesday, December 13th and we will begin our first outpatient chemotherapy session on Wednesday, December 14th.  This consists of one 7 hour infusion and then a few nights at a hotel in Philadelphia so that the physicians can observe Brandon's response during his daily visits to the hospital and Sam and Becky can power shop on Walnut Street.

Again, thank you for your love, kind words and prayers.  As we take the next steps on our road to recovery, we are truly grateful to be surrounded by two loving and supportive families and an unbelievable group of friends.

Please continue to check back, Sam and Brandon will do their best to update the blog as frequently as possible; keeping everyone up to date on our progress!

With Love,

Brandon and Sam

Monday, December 5, 2011

Here we go.....

Dear Friends and Family,
We want to thank you for your love and support.  We are deeply touched by the outpouring of e-mails, text messages and phone calls expressing affection and concern.  Please know that these kind words and prayers provide us with great inspiration and immeasurable strength.
As you can expect, this news has come as a shock and we are attempting to balance recent events while maintaining a sense of normality.  While we would love to communicate directly with each of you, our time and focus must shift towards working with the medical team to develop a plan for treatment and full recovery.
We recognize your concern and we want to effectively inform everyone of our progress.  Therefore, we are establishing a blog to bridge communication barriers and provide the most recent information as quickly as possible.  In short, we want our lives to remain relatively unchanged and communicating with everyone at one time will allow us to continue to flourish in our careers and provide more opportunities to rest, recover and spend time with each other and with each of you.   We will do our best get the blog up and running in the coming days and to keep it updated.
With sincere gratitude, we say, “thank you” for your love , support and encouragement.  We feel incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends and family and we look forward to the day in the near future when a fully recovered Brandon and Sam can sit with you, enjoy a drink and a laugh, and just catch up.
With Love,
Brandon and Samantha